A staff audit of the technical universities conducted by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) has exposed anomalies in the teaching and administrative procedures in the institutions.

The audit was carried out with the objective of facilitating the effective migration of staff of the universities onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

The report, dated December 21, 2018, a copy of which is available to the Daily Graphic, revealed for instance, that most lecturers, especially those in the schools of business, had been teaching without relevant background, with some holding Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees acquired through online, which is against the regulations of the NCTE.

“Some lecturers have either Doctor of Business Administration (BA) from the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica or Decorate in Finance from the Swiss Management Centre (SMC) University and the University of Central Nicaragua. These are non-research doctorates and are not acceptable for teaching.

"Some lecturers also have PhDs awarded by the University of Central Nicaragua on the basis of DBA awarded by the SMC. This arrangement for the award of PhDs is not acceptable and such qualifications should not be accepted for teaching as well,” the report stated.

It further indicated that some lecturers were teaching with mismatched first, second and terminal degrees, referred to as "skirt and blouse,” a practice the NCTE found unacceptable.

It made it clear those lecturers with master’s degrees and PhDs acquired online should not be recognised and that affected lecturers should go back to school to acquire relevant degrees before they would be migrated onto the SSSS.

The report further stated that only lecturers with relevant background should teach courses in their areas of specialisation.

Education Minister's word

A strongly worded transmission letter accompanying the report, signed by the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, stressed that only lecturers with researched Master's and terminal degrees from recognised universities, both local and abroad, would be migrated onto the Traditional University Salary Scale.

The unqualified lecturers have, however, been given up to between two and three years to upgrade themselves before they could be migrated onto the university salary scale.

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